Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser will be charged as adults, a court ruled/Photo credit: CBS 58

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin state appeals court ruled that two girls accused of trying to kill their classmate in an attempt to please the fictional horror character “Slender Man” should be tried as adults.

Last week’s ruling from the 2nd District Appeals court affirmed a lower court’s decision last year that Morgan E. Geyser and Anissa E. Weier should be tried as adults. The girls could appeal the decision to the state’s Supreme Court, according to the Waukesha Patch.

The girls were 12 years old in 2014 when they lured their classmate into woods in Waukesha after a birthday sleepover and repeatedly stabbed her, according to court documents. The victim, who was also 12, was found along a road, bleeding from wounds that nearly killed her. Investigators said she was stabbed 19 times. The victim crawled to the side of a road where a passing bicyclist found her the next morning. She made a quick recovery and returned to school a few months later.

Police said the girls spent months plotting the attempted killing. If they are tried as adults, they face up to 65 years in prison.